Music rights body pauses party organisers' playlists

With New Yearrsquos Eve upon them the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India FHRA western region is yet to decide what songs it can play at the parties and events hosted by its members They say the music rights body Indian Performing Rights Society IPRS is not telling them which songs are copyrights of its member artists and command royalty Donrsquot want to face the music Party organisers do not want to be fined for playing rightsprotected numbers and are therefore demanding a list of such tracks from the IPRS PicKrunal Gosavi According to Praadip Shetty honorary secretary of FHRA western region the IPRS is purposely putting off announcing the list to event organisers so it can later charge hefty penalties for rightsprotected tracks played at parties The senior authorities at IPRS western region however reasoned that instead of them sending a list of innumerable music tracks from their 3000 members the hoteliers and organisers should submit them their playlist so they can approve or snub the songs on it ldquoThe IPRS people are behaving as if their members have a copyright over each and every music track We have never said we wonrsquot pay royalties for the music we play But there is no mechanism to know which track belongs to IPRS membersrdquo said Shetty The constituents of FHRA are also smarting under the time restraint imposed on New Yearrsquos celebrations in Pune and Mumbai ldquoWe are already in trouble as we might lose business worth around Rs 150 crore thanks to the policersquos deadline on New Year parties To top we have to shell out a huge amount of money in royalties to the IPRS as there is no uniformity in the rates As a result owners of small restaurants are not hosting any eventrdquo Shetty said He added that the FHRA is in talks with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan regarding the various stringent licensing policies for performing live musical events IPRS says GG Prasad senior regional manager licensing IPRS western region said ldquoWe have 3000 members and it will not be possible to send a list of the innumerable music tracks bearing a copyright from our members to the FHRA Instead of that the hotel owners and event organisers could submit us the list of song tracks they intend to play and the IPRS could tell them whether any of those bear copyrights from our membersrdquo Javed Akhtar Gulzar and Khayyam are among the members of the IPRS Prasad further said ldquoIt is false that there is irregularity in the royalty charges The rates are published on our websiterdquo said Prasad ldquoIn the backdrop of New Yearrsquos celebrations the IPRS also offered a discount on royalty fees But organisers are interested in saving every pennyrdquo lsquoPlaying spoilsportrsquo Sandesh Deshmukh an event organiser at a restaurant in Kharadi said that the music rights officials dampen the mood of celebration by swooping down on the venue and asking to cough up money ldquoAlthough they were supposed to charge Rs 25000 as royalty they charged on the basis of the event venue last yearrdquo he said Avinash Kumar who is arranging a do at a posh restaurant on Nagar Road said ldquoI paid Rs 45000 as royalty for the upcoming New Yearrsquos party at a fivestar restaurant Such chunky fees always collapse our budget for the eventrdquo u00a0